It's a rational answer.
Humans are notoriously irrational in their decision making, and focusing on which is better in order to make the best health decision may lead to making a decision that is far worse.
At the same time, this is a country where 45% of people believe ghosts are real and 35% have been in contact with someone after the've died. You absolutely do not want people at the margin holding out for a longer time to get the vaccine they think is best when they could have been vaccinated a month ago.
Treating people like idiots yields worse results than making them believe they're intelligent (be it true or not). You can look at our political landscape for evidence of that. That's just my opinion of course.
The data is available. No one is hiding it. No one is treating people like idiots. Those with expertise in pandemics may not consider every single internet comment made by every single internet random, but honestly, it would be ridiculous to think every internet random’s comment should have the same weight as those with expertise.
The data is not hidden, we’re all free to analyze it.
All the vaccine information that is available is fully available, and the only decision that is available is:
Get the vaccine, or don't get the vaccine. Picking which vaccine is not an option at this time.
counterpoint: if a person believes themselves to be "smart enough to make this decision", they should also be smart enough to read the research and make that conclusion for themselves which one is better for their specific situation, no?
AFAIK, the research is publically available, so it's not a problem of a lack of information, rather it's a lack of anyone with significant enough credentials willing to speak up and endorse a particular solution over the others.
This doesn’t matter on an individual level. There are public health reasons to try and get as many people as vaccinated as possible, no matter the vaccine. But aggregate math means little to the individual person. The difference between. 70% and 90% is fairly profound, profound enough to weigh against individual people making a decision on which vaccine to get.
It’s not irrational at all for an individual to prefer the vaccine with the highest efficacy. It’s hubris, or insanity, on the part of public health officials to expect an entire nation of people to put individualism aside for the sake of greater good.
It is absolutely not hubris to encourage people to take the vaccine available to them now, rather than wait a month for the one with 90%.
It's a prisoners dilemna and the government should encourage people to choose the cooperate approach by imposing incentives and manipulating the informational landscape.
It's the same reason why I support government recycling initiatives or the general idea of taxation.
Who is to say it’s a month wait? That’s the issue.
Clearly I disagree with the rationality--you're comparing the efficacy rates of being vaccinated among Moderna, Pfizer, or J&J. That's irrational--instead a person should compare the efficacy rate of being vaccinated by any of the available vaccines vs the efficacy rate of not being vaccinated due to holding out for personal preference of a vaccine.
It’s a decision of waiting 2-3 weeks for a 28% increase in efficacy. Am I more likely to get covid in those 2-3 weeks, or is the reduced effectiveness more likely to result in getting covid?
It does not seem irrational at all me, and clearly also not to others making these same decisions.
Is this your situation? I hadn't heard of this happening for anyone.
Or did you ask, and were told who cares, just get it.
From my own, semi-informed research:
* The effectiveness of J&J is likely under-reported because it was tested during a significant outbreak.
* Moderna seems to have slightly higher reports of side effects compared to Pfizer, though unlikely to be statistically significant.
* I am a young, healthy person.
With that calculus:
1) I'd pick whichever was available to me the fastest. In my area immunizations are by appointment and segmented by vaccine. I'd rather have Moderna tomorrow than wait a week for an appointment for another to open up.
1.a) In the unlikely case that I had a choice between the shots, I'd select J&J, as it has been shown to be safe and effective with one shot. This simplifies my life.
In reality, scheduling a vaccine seems to be the hardest. No one of the ~10 or so I've talked to who have had their first shot between January and early March have had the ability to chose. When I received my first dose of Pfizer last month I didn't have a choice of options; I was on four or five call lists and took the one that offered me an appointment. My wife received Moderna because her work coordinated mass vaccinations and that's what they offered. A coworker received J&J because there were leftover doses that needed to be administered.
Perhaps that's changed, but as many states open up to 16+ I suspect it'll remain the biggest challenge.
Calling the standard answer infantile was where I took issue.
Assuming your question wasn't rhetorical--in the hypothetical scenario you described based on today's info, I would opt for J&J,
1) as a matter of convenience
2) The technology behind J&J is more mature
Just a single data point from one study, but I raise it only to point out that it may in fact not be the case that the J&J shot provides better immunity vs two weeks after the first mRNA dose.
shrug
The point being; it's way too early to know which is better and why, and to base a decision on that data.
If the 90% effective one is supply constrained and has this complicated 2 dose thing, and the 60-some % is simple and available, you're still doing your part to make a serious dent in the spread of the disease overall. And if the death rate of covid is some low number x, making it 0.3x is a pretty good deal.
You may think people should get whatever vaccine is available to them. That is fine. But to actively discourage discussion and information comparing the vaccines is downright Orwellian.
It's Loserthink to believe every person has the medical background and qualified to weigh the medical information on vaccines to make an informed decision to wait for their choice of vaccines.